Typically, plastic bags for use at point-of-sale in markets are manufactured from an extruded tube of plastic, such as polyethylene, heat sealed and perforated at spaced intervals along the length of thee tube. The tube is then rolled into tubular configuration for packaging and sale purposes. Each bag is subsequently individually removed as needed, by tearing it off along the perforations. Alternately, in some instances, the tube of plastic is cut rather than perforated, permitting the bags to be folded and placed into a dispensing container for individual removal at the time of use.
In either case, the bag must be opened and various means have been tried by the user or customer in attempting to separate the sides of the bag. A user's thumb and forefinger can be placed on opposite sides of the bag and rubbed together. A diagonal cut or tear can also be provided across an edge of the bag, or a fingernail can be pressed between the bag walls However, the mouth of the bag is usually not marked. Accordingly, the customer's attempts to open the bag often are inadvertently directed to the bottom of the bag. Under these circumstances, to say that opening the bag may be frustrating or cumbersome, is like saying that the Watergate break-in was just another burglary. Neither term adequately describes the situation.
Even after the bag has been opened and filled, it must be closed, and various means are available for maintaining the bag in a closed condition. Paper or plastic covered wire ties and/or plastic straps or notched tab closures are usually provided for use as a closure for such bags. However, the use of these closing means requires that the bag be closed with one hand while the closures are applied with the other. This usually proves to be a cumbersome task. In addition, the wire tie or plastic straps are typically stored separately from the bags and are easily misplaced, or the number mismatched.
To overcome the problem of misplaced closure means, various bags, principally heavy weight garbage or leaf bags have been designed with integral tying means. The utilization of such integral tying means often requires that the user of the bag perform the additional act of removing the integral tying means from the bag before using same.
One of the inherent disadvantages of the bag having integral tie means is the shape of the closures. E.g., if the closing means is in the form of slender ears such as in Hollowell 3,961,743 their widths are much less than their length. Thus, the ears can easily tear along their bases during the step of tearing the bag off the roll, during the tying process, or when being used as a carrying handle. In addition, the wide central portion of the bag often remains shut after being separated from its adjacent neighboring bag. Opening of the central portion can be a duplication of the frustrating attempts previously described.
Furthermore, inasmuch as the relatively narrow ears of Hollowell 3,961,743 also determine the configuration of the bottom portion of the adjacent bag on the roll, the bottom portion of each bag has an extremely long seam and contains corners which typically remain unfilled or partially filled during the filling process resulting in a bag which, in general, is not filled to its theoretical capacity. Lastly, the bag is difficult to manufacture due to the narrow ears and because the design requires the transverse shifting of one layer of plastic relative to the other layer of plastic forming the bag so that the tying ears can be formed.
Produce bags are provided in rolls of very thin plastic material which is of insufficient strength, and bags are of too small size, for bagging groceries. They are simple double-layer (flattened tube), full-width bags. That is, there are no multiple-layer edge folds to provide bags, which upon opening, are wider than the roll. They are formed in the roll by simple transverse perfs and seals so the bags are essentially square. The top and bottom are indistinguishable which leads to consumer confusion and great difficulty to open the bags for use. That results in wadage as many bags are torn at the bottom by frustrated consumer attempts to open the bags, thinking they are working on the top.
Further, the exceedingly thin plastic, on the order of 0.1 to 0.3 mils or less, is so thin that the compression of winding the bags on the roll, the inherent self-adhesion effect of two clean surfaces touching, and electrostatic forces make opening the bags difficult. Just about everyone has experienced frustration and great difficulty in trying to open such ultra-thin produce bags without tearing, or in a parallel experience, trying to unfold cheap thin plastic drop "cloths" in which the plastic is so thin one cannot tell whether there are one or more layers, and separation without tearing is next to impossible.
Further, to my knowledge, no one has provided a produce bag with integral ties. Clearly, using heavy-weight plastic grocery bags is uneconomic as each shopper uses multiple produce bags to separate different items of produce. And plastic grocery bags are too large and wasteful. The proliferation of plastic grocery bags in landfill is already a serious waste management problem, and use of plastic grocery bags for produce use would enormously magnify that serious problem.
Because of the foregoing, it has become desireable to develop an inexpensive, easily manufactured ultra thin plastic produce bag which can be easily opened and which can be closed by a pair of integral straps each having high tear strength. The configuration of the bag is such that it provides dual use, having a single obviously defined mouth opening into a large upper compartment portion for large produce objects, and a connected lower portion for smaller or fewer produce objects.